International Football History and Statistics

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On this day in football history

1873 Ernest "Nudger" Needham, also dubbed the "Prince of Half-Backs" was born.

1899 Steve Bloomer scored six goals in Derby County's 9-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday in Division One.

1914 On his way to an England international trial game at Sunderland Alex Donaldson of Bolton Wanderers revealed that he was actually born in Scotland. Wallace of Aston Villa had to take his place in the trial and Donaldson ended up in the Scottish side which faced England on April 4th of the same year!

1927 The BBC broadcast their first running commentary of a Football League match when Arsenal played Sheffield United at Highbury. George Allison, who became Arsenal manager after the death of Herbert Chapman, provided the commentary. The historic match ended 1-1 with Charlie Buchan scoring for the Gunners and Billy Gillespie for the Blades. Arsenal: Lewis, Parker, Cope, Milne, Butler, John, Hulme, Blyth, Buchan, Brain and Hoar. Sheffield United: Sutcliffe, Birks, Harris, Green, King, Boyle, D. Mercer, A. Mercer, Johnson, Gillespie and Tunstall.

1928 Rangers signed Duncan Yuill, a promising young goalkeeper, from Dumbarton after little more than half a season with the club. He had originally signed for St Mirren in 1925 but was unable to establish himself and joined Dumbarton on a free transfer in the summer of 1927. He didn't really have an opportunity to establish himself at Rangers either and in the 1928 close season he signed for Aberdeen and went straight into their first team. He played in 70 matches before transferring to Millwall in 1930 where he remained until the Second War, collecting a Third Division South medal in 1938. In all he appeared in 80 Scottish League games and 188 matches in the Football League.

1933 Alf Hanson made his Football League debut as outside-left for Liverpool at Villa Park. He was transferred to Chelsea in 1938 but the Second War brought an early end to his career. In all he played in 203 League matches and scored 58 goals. His brother Stanley was Bolton Wanderers goalkeeper for twenty years (1936-1956) and played in over 400 matches for the club.

1939 When Aston Villa lost at Preston North End in the FA Cup it was their first away defeat in the competition for eleven years.

1954 Chelsea signed centre-half Stan Wicks from Reading. He made his debut in Third Division football in 1949 playing in 168 matches before moving to Stamford Bridge. Wicks played in exactly half of Chelsea's games when they won the Championship in their Jubilee season (1954-55) but had to retire in 1957, after a career total of 239 matches, due to injury.

1965 Vic Buckingham was appointed manager of Fulham. An elegant wing-half in his playing days he turned out on 205 occasions for Tottenham Hotspur between 1935 and 1949 and represented England in a couple of wartime internationals against Wales in 1941. A fully-qualified coach, he became chief scout at the Middlesex FA and joined Bradford City as manager in 1951. He took over at West Bromwich Albion in February 1953 and remained at the Hawthorns for six years before resigning and going to Holland to manage Ajax. When he returned to England he became manager of Sheffield Wednesday in 1961.

1973 The Russian FA abolishes drawn matches. Penalty shoot-outs will decide matches that are level after 90 minutes.

1974 Melwyn Griffiths who refereed the "Matthews Cup Final" in 1953 died at the age of 65.